adminLatwell Nyangu
THE Harare City Junior Council has suspended one of its members over allegations of bullying at Girls High School.
The suspension came after the suspect (name withheld) bullied another student.
A letter of suspension, written by the Junior Mayor Atupele Phiri, reads:
“It is with great regret and concern that we write this letter to you. It has come to our attention that the honourable councillor and others have allegedly been bullying one of the students from your school.
“It is apparent that the honourable has been leading this culture and as a junior council, bullying is directly against our fundamental beliefs as well as our mandate and therefore we are taking this matter seriously.
“We have for the time being suspended the honourable from her duties in junior council while we conduct our own investigations and a disciplinary hearing for the matter.
“This suspension means, she will not come to Town House in the name of junior council or wear the junior council regalia until such a time as we have carried our investigations and reached a verdict upon which we will either reinstate her as a junior honourable councillor or entirely relieve her of her duties.”
Added the letter:
“We understand that the victim’s mother made several attempts to seek restitution to the matter and her efforts were futile, culminating in her coming to meet the administration and, unfortunately, spent several hours at the school office unattended.
“We have, therefore, resolved to humbly urge you to launch an immediate investigation into the matter as the students in question are about to sit for their final examination and such an issue can be detrimental to the children’s psyche, let alone the reputation of your school.”
One of the junior councillors said they were approached by the victim’s mother.
“A week ago we were approached by a parent with a serious issue of her child being bullied by a sitting Junior Councillor from Girls High School.
“We met the parent and victim of this almost fragrant bullying and we suspended her as the issue was grave.
“We, in turn, asked her school to properly look into the issue but it was swept under the rug.
“The victim is now depressed and hasn’t been attending classes for fear of this continued cycle and the school’s reluctance to prosecute the perpetrator.
“They called the victim’s mom to talk about the issue but left her unattended for several hours from 9 am to around 1 pm.
“That was when she turned to us to seek some form of assistance, to which we wrote the headmaster.”
No comment could be obtained from the Girls High School authorities.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter